by Debbi | Aug 8, 2011 | Stories
Sad news for Sandbar fish fans.
Homer, our large puffer fish, died yesterday. Homer was a resident of our fish tank for eight years, and he lived in a tank at Jayhawk Tropical Fish for eight years before that.
Here's a couple pictures of Homer, courtesy of mayor of the Sandbar Jeff.
You may or may not know that Homer was our second puffer fish. Our original puffer fish was Frank, who oddly enough also lived eight years in our tank, and may or may not still be in Coleen's freezer. He was so popular that when he died in 2003, we knew we had to get another puffer fish.
Go here to read an ode to Frank in the Tank. If you'd like to write a similar poem about Homer, go for it. Send it to us and we'll publish it, or leave it in the comments.
Also, if you have your own photos of Homer, we'd love to see them. You can upload them to our Facebook page, our Flickr group, tweet them to us @thesandbar or email them to us at sandbar@thesandbar.com. Homer can live on in an online memorial. He'll be buried at Peach and Ted's farm.
by Debbi | Aug 1, 2011 | Stories
In the spirit of Shark Week, we have a little story about our fish tank. Even though it doesn't have a shark in it anymore. Yes, we used to have a real shark in the bar.
Dave was planning to add more water to the 500 gallon fish tank in the front of the bar. He wheeled his 55 gallon trashcan full of saltwater across the floor of the bar as bartender Ken and our friend Brandon watched.
All of a sudden, the trashcan folded up as it moved along…and 55 gallons of saltwater poured all over the Sandbar floor.
Ken and Brandon jumped up on the benches so they wouldn't be swept away in the tide.
How exactly do you get 55 gallons of water out of a bar?
According to Dave, you grab a bunch of brooms and sweep it out the front door. And then you mop, and mop, and mop some more. Needless to say, the floor was clean.
by Debbi | Jul 27, 2011 | Guest Blogs, Stories
After posting our recent story about ladies locking themselves in the bathroom, long-time regular customer Lisa posted a comment with her favorite Sandbar bathroom memory.
One of my favorite memories there is a bathroom one too! This really drunk girl kept pushing and pushing on the bathroom door and looked rather flustered when it wouldn't open. I pointed out that someone was probably in there and the door was locked. She swore up and down to me that there were stalls in the bathroom and more than one person could go in there and that the door must be stuck.
Finally the girl who had been inside opened the door and came out, and the drunk girl looked totally amazed that indeed there was only one toilet in the women's bathroom (I of course was dying inside from not laughing in her face at this point). She goes into the restroom to do her business and I start telling my friends, who are sitting at the tables by the bathroom, about her.
I reenact her pushing on the door, when to my surprise the door flies open to her sitting on the toilet. After she finished and came out she told me she couldn't lock the door because the lock didn't work. Forget that it had been locked previously, she clearly was also trying to use the wrong lock!
Love this.
by Debbi | Jul 22, 2011 | Stories
Our Man on the Street, former bartender and current draught specialist Pat was in Manhattan (the little apple, not the big one) recently for business.
Since he was there overnight, he naturally spent time in the hotel bar chatting up the bartender.
As they visited about Lawrence, she informed Pat that our little dive is her favorite bar in Lawrence- and he hadn't even mentioned the Sandbar yet!
We're glad to hear that our neighbors to the west like us too, even if we are in enemy territory for Manhattan residents!
by Debbi | Jul 19, 2011 | Cool Stuff, Stories
This is definitely a show at Theatre Lawrence that we need to see: "How I Became a Pirate."
This show opened last weekend, but if you missed it, don't worry- there are three more performance dates. You can catch the show on July 22, 23 or 24.
Here's a description of the show, from the Theatre Lawrence website:
When Braid Beard’s pirate crew invites Jeremy Jacob to join their voyage, he jumps right on board. Buried treasure, sea chanteys, pirate talk – who wouldn’t go along? Soon Jeremy Jacob knows all about being a pirate through songs like “Talk like a Pirate†and “Pirates Dot Arggh.†It’s the heave-ho, blow-the-man-down, very best time of his life. Until he finds out what pirates don’t do– no reading bedtime stories, no tucking kids in…Maybe being a pirate isn’t so great after all. This family friendly musical is based on books by Caldecott Honor-winning illustrator David Shannon and writer Melinda Long.
The best part? It's a costume contest! Theatre Lawrence encourages all the audience members to come dressed up as a pirate, and there are prizes before the show for the best dressed pirates!
This sounds like a great show for the entire family, and bartender Coleen is taking a pack of children to the show on Saturday. Maybe you'll see more of our staff there, too!
Go here to buy tickets online.
by Debbi | Jul 18, 2011 | People, Stories
Last weekend, a couple of lovely ladies had some problems with the bathroom.
They went to the bathroom together, as we all know girls are prone to do. Next thing Dave knew, another girl came up to the bar to let him know that some girls were stuck in the bathroom.
He got the key- fortunately we have a key (that he could find) that unlocks the door from the outside- and went to unlock the door. Honestly, he thought the lock must have been messed up somehow if they couldn't get it open, so he was afraid the key wouldn't work.
It worked.
The girls were free of the bathroom. Dave realized then that they were trying to unlock the wrong lock.
See, every once in awhile the lock on the door breaks, and he has to install a new one. Sometimes it's at normal door handle level, and other times the lock is up high.
However, every time the lock is moved (and it hasn't been moved for quite some time), Dave is careful to write on the door and clearly mark where the new lock is:
Not really sure what lock they were trying to unlock. Maybe they just needed a bartender to come to their rescue?
